Boss Man at 34

Who hasn’t dreamt of being his own boss? The freedom to build his own sky’s-the-limit success?

For David Guas, who left his native New Orleans over ten years ago to be opening pastry chef for the new DC Coast restaurant, and stayed on to lead the pastry kitchens of its three subsequent sister restaurants, the dream got much more personal after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his childhood home.

“We were opening a new restaurant that week – there was no question of going down to help my parents; they came up, instead, with just the clothes on their backs, which is a story for another time. But it was a real struggle for me, not being able to help out physically. An urge to do something started to resonate, a real need to fill the void that had been my home, and reconnect with my birthright, so to speak.”

When Guas left his corporate domain two years later to start his consulting business, he named it damgoodsweet, a loving nod to a historically irreverent town. In New Orleans and across southern Louisiana when something is really good, it is “damn good!” So to be G-rated for his under-age fans and their parents, the name was gently adjusted to damgoodsweet.

Then came his first cookbook – of the same name, subtitled Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth New Orleans Style (Taunton Press, Fall 2009). The great buzz of anticipation surrounding the project seemed to magnify the work involved. “We were on a pretty tight deadline, and I just dove headlong back into the food I’d grown up with. I was constantly on the phone with my parents, my sister, my Aunt Boo – the world’s best cook (another story for another time) – and the memories were all just tugging at my heartstrings. I wanted a place of my own to bring it all back to life, where my life is now. I love DC." Guas' boys are almost 5 and 7 and thriving in school. It wasn’t about deciding not to move back; it had become a matter of sharing ‘back home’ with his here-and-now.